


Maybe I've Been Here Before

by justanother_bloody_fangirl



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: And all have powers, Bill has speed and teleportation, Crossover, Eddie has healing, Eleven Will Eddie Richie Bill Stan and Mike W are all MKUltra experiments, Eleven has the usual, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Multi, Pennywise and Brenner kind of working together, Pennywise is from the Upisde Down, Richie and Mike W are twins, Richie can cause pain, The other kids aren't original experiements or powered, Will and Mike's to be revealed later, but not really, but they are still valuable and useful, stan is psychic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-03-30 13:24:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 17,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13952493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanother_bloody_fangirl/pseuds/justanother_bloody_fangirl
Summary: All El wanted to do was search for her sister, but she ended up discovering four boys - one of whom looked so similar - and discovering that they, and her friends and family in Hawkins were in serious danger from an old enemy. As repressed memories surface, powers unleash and friendships evolve, a strange group of teens soon discover more about themselves, their friends and the lifestyle they had lived before - and come to terms with the fact that none of them will ever be the same again.Or...The Stranger Things/It Crossover people have already done and I decided to do as well. Bit late I know. Enjoy.(yes the title is a quote from Hallelujah)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Here goes nothing.

Six months had passed since the Snow Ball, where Lucas and Max had _finally_ allowed themselves to admit the electricity Dustin had felt and had kindly, but despondently, accepted and Mike and Eleven – Jane – had got their promised dance. Even Dustin and Will had got a final dance each. All was well and happy…but something was wrong. _Something_ felt out of place.

So that’s why Jane – El – decided to do it. She flicked through the TV until it became fuzzy, and wrapped a cloth around her head, covering her eyes. _Kali. Kali – sister? Where are you? 008?_ Jane called out in her mind, but something was pulling her mind elsewhere, something linked to her sister that wasn't her sister.

In the darkness she turned and saw three boys walking towards her, she instantly felt a connection.


	2. Blood Brothers and Spirit Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What El discovered....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know I'm British so if I call things different things or spell words differently - that's why. I won't change anything, but I might try and avoid from using certain words and phrases because the characters are American and I want authenticity, but I will probably use British slang and words accidentally. Sorry if it annoys you.  
> Also I don't particularly like swearing, so any of the quite bad words I will blank parts out, any really bad ones I will refrain from using and small ones will pop up here and there - but not much.

**Jane/Eleven’s POV**

“Where’s Richie?” a small boy with a bag thing – I can’t remember what they are called – wrapped around his waist speaks, his voice echoing around. “We just finished school for the summer – has Bowers got him do you think?” he was worried – what was this ‘Bower’s’…was it like ‘Hawkins National Laboratory’… a bad place that had taken this Richie?

“N-no Eddie, B-b-bower’s is-s- over t-there. T-t-terr-terrorising some other kid. Unless R-r-richie gets here soon he’ll p-probably g-g-get start-t-ted on us-s-s.” a taller boy replies, he has light brown hair, and he seems to be the leader. Not a leader like Papa. A leader like Mike or Hopper – kind, caring.

“He probably got kept behind for doing what he does – talking nonstop about the most vulgar things.” the third boy, with hair that curls – but in tighter curls than mine – and bounces around his head.

“Nah, your mother arrived and took me to the bathroom so we could-” another voice.

“Beep beep, Richie!” the other three chorus, but I almost don’t hear them. The boy who arrived, “Richie”, cannot be “Richie”… because he is _Mike_. But a different Mike, a strange, not-exactly-horrible-but-not-nice Mike. With thick thick glasses.

“Anyway Bower’s won’t come anywhere near me after what happened last time.” Richie sighs, looking over to where the stuttering leader had pointed.

“Yeah that was weird.” the curly-haired boy says. “What even happened?”

“I don’t know. Bower’s was going to attack me, like the mullet-wearing asshole he is, and I was _really_ angry. I was just thinking “yeah – come on…come and get me you f***er. I’ll kill you!” and he just started having a f***ing fit or something. I didn’t even do anything! I ended up worse, even though he acted like I had tortured him! Not a mark on his body, yet I get dizzy and faint and a f***ing nosebleed.”

“We always knew you were a f***ing weirdo.” Eddie says, but I’m trying to process what Richie said. He got a nosebleed…and the other was writhing in agony?

“Yeah, probably some new type of STI I caught from your mum, Eds.” Richie yells in a sing-song voice.

“F*** off, Richie!” Eddie stamps his foot and storms off, picking up a bike that appeared from nowhere and cycling off, but not before throwing books from his school bag at a bin. “And that’s not my f***ing name!”

“I-i-i-I’m g-going to g-go. C-c-co-m-me on, let-t-s-s th-throw our b-b-book-ks in-in the b-b-b-bin.” the leader says, and the other two follow him to the bin and to throw their books out.

“Righty-oh Big Bill, come on Stan the Man, quickly march to the heel of our mighty leader!” Richie wails, in the best impression of a posh English accent, every second looking less and less like Mike. All three proceed to throw the books away in turn, Bill first, Richie second and Stan last.

Stan waits for the other two to leave, and as he throws his books in slowly, he looks around, straight at me, and drops a piece of paper. It lands at my feet and I look to see the neat handwriting, each letter separate. I can read it easily and quickly, especially because I recognise most of the words on it.

_011 Hawkins Papa Eleven Richie Mike Mike Richie Richie Mike Eleven Hopper Ives Will Castle Byers Dustin Lucas Dart Madmax Demogorgan The Upside Down The Mind Flayer Demodogs Steve Papa Papa Papa Eleven Jane Jane Eleven Eleven Jane Jane Hopper Eleven Ives Jane Ives Eleven Hopper El El El El Hawkins Lab Project MKUltra Richie Bill Eddie Stan Pennywise Clown Derry Georgie Float you’ll float too you’ll float too YOU’LL FLOAT TO ~~O           T~~ hey She He It They She He It They are coming. _

I look up, my eyes wide…

He picks it up and looks straight in my eyes…

“ELEVEN! ELEVEN! ELEVEN! ELEVEN!” his voice screams around the darkness, but his mouth doesn’t move.

“Stan? Stan! Stan!” I scream, but all he does is pass me the paper, and I get a glimpse of his wrist. His skin slowly darkens into a tattoo, then fades away, but the image stays clear in my mind.

**010**

The number before mine…he is an experiment too? He touches my tattoo and three memories sear in my mind –

_Bowers is chasing me and Bill. We need to hide – we need to hide – we need to run! I look at Bill, he understands. He grabs my wrist, and he stops us. I try to run, but he’s holding me still, right behind a tree, in the shade. Bowers rushes past. He stops two feet away, whirling around in anger._

_“WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE ARE THOSE F***ERS!” he screams, I almost cry out in shock. Then I feel Bill pulling me away. I must be in a state of shock because we are right outside my house in what seems to be in a minute. Even though I live on the other side of town. He must have fallen over too, because he can barely stand, and is bleeding heavily from his nose. I wonder_

**009** _-_

_Bowers beat Eddie. Bowers beat Eddie so bad I thought he was going to die. I didn’t even see the beating, I just saw the almost unrecognisable, quivering body of my friend. He demanded to be taken home. He wasn’t at school the next day. We go to visit him, and we see him sitting on his bed, in perfect condition. He says that it must have looked worse than it was – but he had almost died, I’m positive. He says the only injury was a bloody nose throughout the night. I wonder_

**013** -

 _Bowers is going to kill Richie. You can see it in his eyes. He charges at him. He must have hit Richie on the nose, for he has a nosebleed and is swaying slightly. But Richie’s eyes burn with a fiery anger. Bower’s bounces off of him and hits the ground writhing in pain, all the while Richie is staring,_ death staring _, at him. Richie then collapses and we run, dragging him along with us. Bowers lies on the ground, breathing heavily. I wonder_

 **004** -

I open my eyes, and see Stan fall into the blackness, like he was pulled back, papers surrounding him, swimming around him, covering every part of him. A menacing voice cackles above me.

“Stan? Stan! Mike! Mike!”

“EL!” Mike’s warm brown eyes – _Mike’s_ eyes, not Richie’s magnified by think glass. Even though Richie’s eyes were enlarged by his glasses, with Mike’s eyes, I can identify each little fleck and sparkle easily – even though they are the same.

“Oh, Mike!” I mumble into his chest as he holds me close, as I sob – _still pretty, still pretty, pretty like Nancy, pretty even when I am bitchin, pretty_ – and wail.

“What El? What did you see? The Mind Flayer? Will? Kali?” he whispers, and pushes me away slightly so we can see each other.

“No. Four boys. Richie – who was _you_ yet not you. Eddie. Bill. Stan. They are brothers, like Kali is sister. 004. 009. 010. 013. Powers…but they are in trouble. Stan gave me a piece of paper but…” I stare down at my hand, and am surprised to see the paper in my fist. How? I have never brought something back before. Mike follows my gaze and takes it, reading all the words.

“When you said Richie was me but not me – is that what this means by ‘Richie Mike Mike Richie Richie Mike’? Like how ‘Eleven Jane Jane Eleven Eleven Jane Jane Hopper Eleven Ives Jane Ives Eleven Hopper El’ means you?” he asks, intrigued. He puts the paper down and studies my face caringly.

I shake my head and try to explain. “No…like…like…brothers born at the same time that look the same.”

“Twins? Richie looks like my “twin”? Or is he my twin?” he asks, now wide-eyed.

I wait, but I think we both know the answer somehow.

“Twins.”

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good opening chapter? Are you hooked? Please comment (kindly) and leave a kudos!


	3. Hello, hello, hello

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after El went back to Mike...

**Eddie’s POV**

I can still feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, as if someone is watching me as I cycle away. In the back of my mind I feel like I can hear Stan’s and a familiar girl’s voice, but I’m not sure.

“Hello, Eddie.” I hear a familiar voice hiss from behind me and I almost flip sideways off my bike trying to get away. A hand grasps my shirt and I get pulled back abruptly. I fly backwards into the wooded area nearby, and smack into a tree. Bowers appears in front of me and I try to struggle away, but I feel each of my arms get pinned to the tree by a different set of arms. “I see you’ve rapidly recovered from your treatment last week…how? You pop thousands more pills? Or maybe because your some mutant freak…Thirteen?”

I don’t know why, but as he says ‘Thirteen’ a dark overwhelming fear fills my heart and I begin to shake. I feel a searing pain on my wrist, but I can’t look. Mutant freak? I healed rapidly because of my pills. That’s why I take them so I never stay hurt or ill.

That’s what mother says.

That’s what she says as she forces pills down my throat, which make my body feel numb and my mind go blank.

_“Dr Brenner said to give you this...this will make you better. Dr Brenner says that these pills will give him and me more control over your condition…which is good; we are more responsible, unlike you, who is untrustworthy with this condition. You’ll try to escape. Dr Brenner says – Dr Brenner says – Dr Brenner says – Dr Brenner says-”_ My mother’s voice rings round my head and a faint memory comes forwards. I feel someone’s hand pinning my arm back slip and touch my wrist -

_“Hello, Eddie Kasprak. Thirteen. I’m Dr Brenner, but you can call me Papa. I need you to take these pills. You’ve been a bad boy, not curing your mother or the other man in here. We need you to. You can go home after this. We just need you to do this.” A fairly old man says, taking my head in his hands. He slips some pills into my open mouth and I swallow them dry. The world begins to swim before me._

_“Nine! William Denbrough! Get out! How dare you? And you brought the others?”_

_“Eddie? What did you do to Eddie?”_ Was that Stan and Bill’s and two other boy’s voices?

_“Eds? Eddie Spaghetti? What did you do! Eds! Wake up, don’t listen to them! EDDIE!”_ Richie? _His voice yells and he finishes with a scream, I hear Brenner shout, then the other kids scream but_

There it ends and I feel Bowers cover my mouth.

“You’re coming with me, I’m taking you to where you need to go.” he hisses, looping an arm around my waist and dragging me further into the woods. His gang – _posse_ – are behind him, signalling someone. I am screaming, thrashing about, but Bowers bruising grip holds me still. “Here you go, Thirteen. Eddie. Whatever he is.”

“And you are sure the others will follow?”

“Yes.” A pause then I hear Bowers speak to his gang as I’m passed over to someone. “Come on. I saw the kid’s bike, Hanlon. The loser’s, they’ll come for him. They believe in loyalty and all that shit.”

I am pushed into a van, slammed onto a hospital bed and have binds wrapped around my arms and legs. A figure leans in front of me as I squirm.

“Hello Eddie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter - sorry - but this was more action that needed to be over fast then anything that needed detail. Comment and leave kudos!


	4. I Need To Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The AV Club discussing what has happened...

**Mike’s POV**

I call all the Party over the walkie-talkies. Luckily Erica didn’t have hold of Lucas’, he was there with Max, creating a mixtape I think, with the walkie-talkie next to them.

“Code Red! Code Red!” I repeatedly yell down the object, while El (she is always El to me) sits on a chair, staring at the paper on the table.

Dustin barrels and tumbles down the steps, clutching to his hat, mouthpiece, and with a rucksack stuffed with food and paper and pens flung haphazardly over what I assume was both his shoulders, but now I’m unsure how it’s even staying on him. Will quickly runs, on his tiptoes, down the stairs, and is followed by Lucas and Max, clutching hands and looking anxiously around, expecting Dart or something, while slipping silently down the steps. They gather round the table, Dustin slinging his arms around El and Will, bringing them close into a group huddle.

“Whats up? Demogorgan? Mind-Flayer? Government Officials? I know it’s not Will, because it looks like we’re in the same curiosity boat, curious to know what Code Red is.” Dustin says, looking around.

“El went to find Kali, but she found something else. She watched four boys talk and it involved them talking about one of them having a nosebleed and seeming to make someone else to writhe in pain by staring at them. They left one by one and Stan was the last one. He talked to El and caused her to receive his memories of the other three possibly using powers and their probable numbers along with that. Stan briefly had a number on his wrist saying “010” and he passed El a note with something he had written upon. She managed to _bring this paper back with her mind_. Also, the boy who possibly has the power to hurt others at will is my twin. That’s what it means there when it repeats mine and his name over and over.” as I explained the situation, each of the Party surveyed the paper.

“So if Richie is your twin, and was experimented on – were you? And it seems that they are in trouble. I think it’s trying to say Hawkins Lab and Brenner is trying to get them.” Lucas says, looking at the paper. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of _me_ being one of the experiments. I mean I didn’t have a number, but neither did the boys in El’s dream, except Stan, whose number appeared briefly. I hadn’t demonstrated powers, I don’t think…

“Yes. Eddie taken. Bait.” El almost cuts Lucas off and silence follows us. The shock of anyone kidnapped, and used as bait to kidnap their friends, by torturous psycho bastards, would silence anyone. An innocent kid.

“OK, does anyone else feel the need to save them?” Dustin says.

“Brothers.” El replies, and Will gives a nod.

“But going back to what Lucas says, they are going after the kid experiments. Even if you aren’t, Mike, they might try and get you because of your connection to your brother. Even if you just found out about him, I’m talking DNA and cells. Not to mention they’re more than likely coming after El, and they know you have a strong connection with her. And maybe there’s another person they might come after.” Max explains, and we all nod.

“Me.” Will whispers and we all stare at him comfortingly, Dustin moves his arm away from El and hugs Will. While he wasn’t an actual original MK-Ultra experiment (Joyce would _never_ have let that happen) he is obviously as damn well as valuable to the Government bastards as Eleven, or Eddie or even Richie and me. “But you three won’t be safe either. They could arrest you, take you for information, use you to manipulate us…Dustin you have had dealings with the Upside Down with Dart and that stuff that went in your mouth in the tunnels. The safest out of all of us is Max because they don’t know as much about her as they do about us.”

“But they can find out about us easily and innocently. That’s how they knew we had El two years ago and knew everything. They sent in someone to subtly ask Mr Clarke about AV Club, and who was in it. They ended up knowing our names and addresses, parking outside our houses and giving us a full on chase down the streets – which I’m surprised no one saw, especially when El flipped the van over our heads.” Lucas says and we all end up laughing.

“She reminds me of E.T – you know? Minus the alien thing…but at least she didn’t get us to fly over the van. While that would have been cool, what happened was way cooler. Plus I’m pretty sure I would have fallen off.” I say as I look around the room and spot and crumpled poster for the film in the corner. Dustin is now almost peeing himself laughing, which just makes me think of Troy.

I wonder what happened to him. His mother took him out of town and sent him to some doctors, convinced he was having problems with hallucinations and unknowingly harming himself and others. While he was a psychopath (laughing at someone’s death and threatening to cut someone’s teeth out unless another person commits suicide?) without him, Hopper, Jonathon, Nancy and Joyce would have never found us and El’s ‘Papa’ would have definitely found us. But that gives me a new, horrifying thought.

“Troy.” I say. The boys all spin to face me and give me a look which screams “WHAT THE ABSALOUTE F***?”

“Why, oh dear God, why are you thinking about that son of a bitch psychotic bastard right now?” Dustin says, flinging his arms around, making El and Will duck and back away from him.

“When El’s mother got too involved, and found out about El, they electrocuted her into a basically comatose state and ripped apart her mind. Troy told people about his experience and his mother called him mad – which he was – and sent him away. But we all know Hawkins Labs manage to root itself in everything, listening to every call, watching every room – except of course the ones we’ve checked and debugged, like this one. What if they…they got him…and…and…silenced…him…” Silence follows as we all process this theory – a theory so probable that can we even call it a theory?

El gives a gasp.

“Danger…danger…” she murmurs, clutching at Dustin’s arm. Dustin’s eyes flare open and he grabs her to make sure she doesn’t faint.

We need – I need – information now. We need to help Eddie, Richie, Bill and Stan. We need to get prepared. But I also need to know what my connection is to everything, what my backstory and past is, because I think I’ve been more connected to El and Brenner then I thought – we all have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go - comment and kudos!


	5. Find Our Way Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie, Bill and Stan find remnants of Eddie's attack...

**Richie’s POV**

I can’t describe it; something is wrong. So, so, so wrong. A pool of dread gnaws away at my stomach like a parasite gnaws away at life, and I can’t shake the feeling of paranoia crawling along the back of my neck.

I see Eddie’s bike first. Me, Bill and Stan had all caught up with each other, but not Eddie. It was strewn across the street like it had been flipped over precariously. Small dots of blood that almost seem insignificant cause a surge of alarm to rip up through me.

“Eddie? Eddie?” I repeatedly call out his name, my voice growing in volume and panic. Stan and Bill join in, and we scramble over to an area of the woods where there looked like there was some kind of small struggle.

Tumbling across the forest floor, I almost collide with a deer. In my fit of anger, panic and shock, I stare it down accidentally and within a second, the deer lies close to death on the ground and blood is spurting out of my nose.

“-ICHIE!” Bill is yelling across at me, I turn and see men hauling my two friends away. I begin to run, but hands grasp at my shirt and I am pulled back. A blindfold slips over my eyes and half over my ears, blocking off most of my senses. My comatose-like trance dissipates and I am left with panic and fear.

“Let go! Let go of me! Bill! Stan! Get off! Eddie! Eddie!” I writhe in the thug’s grip, but he manages to lift me up and begins to walk with me. My thrashing legs hit the side of a van, the metal ringing out and almost deafening me. All goes quiet.

“Get him in it. If it’s broken-” a cold voice begins to say.

“Richie?” a muffled voice comes from somewhere nearby. I twist my head quickly, causing part of the blindfold to slip down. I can see Eddie’s hair from the window of a nearby van, and then I see his jerking shoulders and upper arms – he’s tied down. A lady steps in front of him to draw blinds on the window.

All I see is red, and the woman begins to scream.

“KEEP HIS EYES COVERED!” the same cold voice from before barks and the blindfold is pushed back up and I am thrown unceremoniously into the back of a metal van. Slamming the door shut, and bolting it in place, my captor flees away, towards, I can only assume, the cold voiced man.

A tap on the shoulder send me whirling round. Catching a glimpse of curls, I squeeze my eyes shut.

“Richie? It’s ok. Open your eyes.” Stan’s soothing voice breaks the frigid silence in the metal box.

“No. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t know why – but it’s like with Bowers and now – they’ve got Eddie tied down, Bill’s missing, we’re here.” I begin to hyperventilate, keeping my eyes shut so firmly it hurts, and shaking my head.

“Just calm down. I know it’s hard. Calm down and open your eyes.” Something in Stan’s voice seems to almost teleport me into a dark space – where nothing surrounds me and all my fear and anger ebbs away. I open my eyes and let silent tears fall.

“Why? How-” I hiccup, slumping to the floor. Stan kneels, then sits cross-legged beside me.

“I only just got my memories back. And I don’t understand any of them. Richie we have…powers. And there’s this girl – and a group of boys and another girl – and Beverly and Ben from school and Mike from the farm all tied in it too. I don’t know much. But we are in mortal danger.” Stan explains, and even though it looks like he doesn’t understand it, and I definitely don’t, something clicks inside of me and I find myself nodding. After a moment, Stan speaks again. “I think Bill is in the van with Eddie. I heard them say each other’s names before you arrived, just as I was being thrown in here.”

“Good, at least we are all, technically, still together. We just need to – to work out what to do.” I say unconfidently, and Stan’s face mirrors my own feelings.

“No, Richie. It’s not that simple. I – I…I…don’t. I-I don’t know. I-I-I…”

“Watch out your turning into Bill.” I smile half-heartedly and Stan gives a small choked chuckle. Now it is my turn to be reassuring. “It’s ok Stan. We’ll be alright. We’ll find a way out. It’s going to be – umm…it’s going to be hard. But we’ll make it. I don’t need psychic abilities to know that.”

Stan smiles and nods, but as I mention psychic powers, something in his face tells me that maybe I’m not entirely right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok two things -  
> 1) The first few chapters will be all quite short as it ranges from the POV of the Party to the Losers Club. Until the two groups meet, most chapters are short, action chapters just to get the ball rolling. I'm not quite explaining it right, but there you go.  
> 2) I actually wrote the first few chapters a while ago, so chapters won't be coming out as fast, and it might take me some time to get back into the swing of things. However, I hate when authors abandon their work - but sometimes their reasons are understandable - so I will try to get this story going as quickly as possible.
> 
> Love you all, comment on how you think this story is going and kudos if you like it.


	6. A.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Party begin to plan...

**Dustin’s POV**

El lies trembling in my arms.

“Shit. El, shit. El!” I shake her gently, so her eyelids flutter from a sliver open to a crescent of milky white open, but she takes a few moments of shaking for her to finally fully regain consciousness. Mike crouches next to me and gently touches his girlfriend’s face tenderly. I shift her so instead of fully being stretched out on my lap, she is almost on Mike’s, using just my knees and hands to help Mike support her.

“Mike. Mike. Dustin. They took them. They’re in vans – Eddie’s tied down, Richie was blindfolded and thrown about, Stan is terrified and Bill is with Eddie…but also separated. I don’t know how to explain it. But they have to rely on us. They need us.” Eleven whispers, her eyes swelling with unshed tears, her mouth trembling with unsobbed sobs. She doesn’t she usually say much, at when she does it’s the basics. But here, with uncertainty and confusion, she speaks more, trying to help us piece together the only partly pieced together jigsaw of what is going on.

“Can I speak to El, alone?” I’m surprised, yet not, at who says it. Mike glances up at the nervous boy, who is glancing down at his shoes, then to El, then back. We all look at each other, and then El nods. Still very weak, I pull her up into a sitting position, hoisting her up by slipping my hands under armpits, and quickly swap places with Will, who resumes my old position, holding El up by the small of her back, hands tense, yet gentle, against the soft jumper that fits her snugly.

Me, Mike, Lucas and Max go to the other corner and begin to mutter between each other, all of us explicitly not facing or listening to what the youngest two of the group are saying, in an unspoken agreement of only letting _them_ tell _us_ whatever they needed to say.

“My…brother…my _twin_ …he’s been _kidnapped by Brenner_. With his friends. He was blindfolded and flung about, and it sounded like he was the only one who had that treatment. They’re gone. My blood…my DNA…” Mike chokes out, reeling in shock as each unexpected twist and turn hits him like a tram. All it takes is one small shock, the size of a buggy, to brush past him and he’d be completely floored.

“Mike, calm it. I know this is stuff with that we haven’t dealt with before – but when has that ever been the case? I’m not going to lie to you – those bastards are coming for us, and they’ve already taken some. But you need to calm down to think about what we need to do next.” I say, almost harshly, trying to get my best friend’s act together. Mike stops hyperventilating, but doesn’t say anything.

“So…” Lucas looks down at the slip of paper he had picked up again. “I think we have to assume the ‘Derry’ is most likely the place the boys are from. Derry is in Maine right?”

“Yes so that’s…just under 1200 miles away I think – 1194, 1195? So they probably left a few minutes ago, and I think the journey will take quite a while. Don’t think they’ll be stopping at service stations for any loo breaks or a trip to the newsagents. Probably have enough fuel to last the trip as well; they are well planned, so we need to be as well. I would say expect they in just under a day, around 20 hours? So, around four tomorrow morning?”

“That’s alright. Not that long, but long enough. What will be our plan? We need to rescue the four boys as well. Create a safe space around here for them for a while. It won’t be safe heading back to Derry, or even generally going back there, for them.” Lucas carries on, thinking out loud, spinning a good web of an idea.

“Is it safe here? And I suggest what we do is stealth – hide El and Will for definite. Keep Mike away from them, no offence. I’ll go in and distract them. Send Hopper and Steve around the back of the vans to release them. Give them to Dustin and Lucas, while Hopper and Steve lead them away innocently. If we can, swap the boys for dummies, or send a signal or something heading back to Derry. Get them to follow it and then, if they try and come back when they realise it was a trick, all of us hide. They can speak to Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan – hell, even Billy – and they won’t know anything. They could even speak to me, if I created a good fake persona when I distract them…” Max whispers. It’s a good plan, not a secure one; a good start.

“Hide El and Will. But, if they also want to take me, let them.” Mike finally speaks, and we all jump back.

“WHAT?” I scream, El and Wil stop talking in hushed tones and look up confused at us, then worriedly at Mike, who stands sheepishly, yet defiantly – don’t ask how – in front of us.

“What’s going on?” Will asks, getting up and helping El to her feet, who is now fully recovered.

“Mike?” El questions, her steel gaze boring into Mike’s soul, he diverts his eyes, but soon sighs and meets her stare.

“He’s going to sacrifice himself to Brenner.” Lucas replies, once we wait for a minute for Mike to reply, but he doesn’t.

“He’s going to make sure you two are safely hidden, then he’s going to give himself up and join his brother, Eddie, Bill and Stan.” Max carries on, shaking her head at Mike. Will’s eyes widen in shock and El turns her questioning stare into a really pissed off one. The lights begin to flicker, and even though we all know it’s El trying to reign in her anger - after being taught to use her anger to unleash her powers - we all tense, especially Will.

She manages to regain what little control she lost, and while still staring daggers at her boyfriend, who deserves it, she sneaks a small sympathetic and apologetic look at us, mainly Will, and gently grabs Will’s arm comfortingly. He just shakes his head to say “it’s fine” and El nods.

Just like how El and Kali are sisters, and El and the four boys are brothers – _wait does that make Mike kind of like her brother? No …. Not really. Definitely not. They’ve got a different connection_ – El and Will’s bond is so strong that it rivals, and sometimes even beats, Mike and El’s. El and Will love each other as close siblings, even closer than real siblings, or El and Kali, and understand each other on a level even Mike isn’t on with either of them.

“No.” El simply says to Mike.

“Yes. Guys, it won’t be like how Brenner was with El-”

“Yes it will.” El cuts in, but Mike carries on.

“- if I was taken, we are more likely to be able to keep all of us safe in the long run. If we use Max’s plan and we save them, Brenner will always be looking for us, and _will_ find us. If I get taken, even the normal police will try and find me under a missing report. Once you find us, you will be able to overcome and take down Brenner in such away he won’t even think about looking for us. He might not even think again at all – he might be dead.” Mike explains, and none of can deny that it doesn’t make sense - it is perfectly logical.

“Please Mike.” El whispers, broken hearted, but even her dark stare is gone, replaced with love, sadness, hope and pride.

“I’m sorry. We don’t have enough time to create a new, intricate plan. Let’s talk to the others and start the basis of a rescue plan. If you want…this can be plan A.5. We can try to rescue them straight away, if we are able to. But it is 99% likely we will _need_ to go with my plan. Ok?” Looking around, Mike see’s us nod, all with faint tear tracks and sorrowful, yet proud, looks filling our eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That alright? Been a little while - but I'll keep posting. I'm quite proud - not necessarily of the writing - but of the plot and idea. If I have used any British terms, which I think I have, I'm not sure, that you don't understand, comment and I'll explain it.  
> Please kudos and leave a comment on your opinion of the story and if you have any ideas/characters that you might want me to add in if I can. x


	7. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill experiences first hand how menacing Brenner is...

**Bill’s POV**

They sedated Eddie, he stopped thrashing mere moments afterwards because he was lightweight and his body was so used to reacting with medication. A woman with black hair that would be around shoulder length if she let it loose, but had tried to pull it into a tight bun and had ended up with half her hair flying out at odd angles, had slipped a needle into his arm then went into the corner of the now moving van, as far as she could go, until she almost was one with the metal cage. Her uniform was the same colour of the walls, so it looked like she was just a floating, crazy head from the corner of my eye.

A man –

_BRENNER PAPA PAPA BRENNER –_

_–_ with light grey hair and cold eyes sits on a chair by Eddie’s bed. He gives Eddie’s right forearm, the one closet to him and me, a gentle squeeze, as if he was his sleeping son. But why would a father look at his son like he was a piece of cake you were planning on to intricately slice open and eat. Or how I imagine how Bowers would look at his victims in the future when he becomes a fully-fledged psychopath.

Or how that clown looked at Georgie before pulling him into the sewers in my nightmare the night my brother went missing. Stan, Eddie and Richie had stayed around mine that night, because we had spent hours looking for him, and when I woke, Stan was shivering in fear, wide awake; Eddie was almost in shock, eyes wide, body vibrating, sweat pouring, but he wasn’t saying anything or moving; Richie was asleep, but thrashing around, his mouth making the movements of the word ‘no’. We all had nightmares that night, and some part of me feels like we all had the same one. Which makes an even smaller part of me think – feel – _know –_ that what happened in my dream was tr-

“Hello, William. Nine. Bill? So many names, but you prefer to go under Bill. Until the emotional convincing programme completes, a few weeks from now probably – hopefully a few days, but I believe you boys, especially Four, Richard, Richie, will take possibly a few months to succumb to it – you will still prefer that. Eventually you will answer to Nine. Like how you used to.” The man finally moves his hand off of Eddie’s arm and looks at me. Getting up, he goes to move towards me, I push myself back along the floor until I hit the wall, and he carries on up towards me without hesitation. Kneeling in front of me, he takes my face in his hand. We are just staring at each other, something is telling me I can’t move, so I just look fearfully at him.

_First Georgie, now me. My parents…well actually they don’t care about me. They never have. It’s like I wasn’t their son, like they hadn’t spent basically every moment with me since my birth. They always seemed scared for me to be close, or have a connection with Georgie. Richie and Stan’s parents probably won’t care, and while, at first thought, Eddie’s mum might freak out, searching for her little baby – I think she’ll be happy he’s gone._

“We have a long trip ahead of us. A few hours. We will stop for a few moments, collect some more children. Journey for a little longer, then you will be reunited with your friends, and some old friends.” The man laughs at the confusion on my face, old friends? “Eleven, Twelve, Five.”

What?

He reaches up above me, and I see a latch that opens up to behind the driver’s compartment. The latch opens and I’m surprised to see the chunk of wall that moves down is about the height of a bike. He grabs hold of me, pulls me up and through the hole backwards, and I end up lying on a seat next to the stone faced driver.

“Look after Thirteen.” The man calls to the bad-hair-day woman, before glancing down at me, and coughing at the driver. He looks over at me, looks at the road and quickly shoves my chest so I end up falling into the foot rest bit. My feet are still on the seat, but the man begins to climb through the compartment, so I tuck my feet in and shift into the corner of the enclosed area I am now trapped in. _Click_. He shuts the compartment door and his feet almost step onto me, but I press myself into the corner of the small space, so only the tips of his point shoes dig into the soft bit of my ankle.

“P-p-pleas-se.” I whisper, not really meaning to. The tips dig a bit further into my ankle, and I hear the hushed menacing whisper of.

“You are not to speak, Nine. Not until you are back at the labs. You are not to move. No one can know or see or hear that you are down there.”

I muffle my sobs as tears begin trickling down my cheeks as I bury my face into my knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was quite short - sorry - but I just wanted a little filler about what Bill experiences in the van and what El meant by the fact he was "separated" from Eddie, yet still with him. A little more drama will happen in the next few chapters, and I think you might be able to expect what happens in the next chapter if you pick up on a small phrase Brenner says to Bill. Just to let you know - Will's POV is next, then Stan's. I won't usually say whose POV is next, but it is fairly important to know that they are next...I think. Comment and kudos. xx
> 
> I will try and publish this story everyday, or possibly every other day if I can. The Lion of Snakes will be published on the weekend, and Angel With A Shotgun will be the same. I have my holiday's coming up next week so I will publish faster for the next few weeks, but then I should go back to this rota.


	8. Repressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What El and Will talk about...

**Will’s POV**

I support El as Dustin and Mike go to talk to the others, Mike glancing back occasionally to make sure his true love is alright.

“El…I’m Twelve aren’t I?” I cut to the chase, and all she does is nod. “I know I wasn’t part of MKUltra from birth, but I have always had a connection with the Upside Down. I thought that, when I was younger, it was normal. When I began to understand depression and other issues, I thought it was that. The Upside Down frightened me so much when I was there, but part of the fear came from the fact that _that place_ had always been there, connected to me. I’m not sure how I ended up being Twelve, how they knew it was me connected to the Upside Down. My connection is why the Demogorgan and Mind Flayer came after me. That night two years ago wasn’t chance. And Brenner always knew that, even from before then.” I pause. “Can you go into my mind, like you did with your mama’s, and fish out my memories? Any repressed memories about being Twelve, and maybe we can remember the four boys – even Mike.”

Her eyes meet mine, and she closes them, as do I. I open up that part of me, the one that’s connected to the Upside Down and reach forwards with it, until I felt it melt into a different type of…air? Fluttering my eyes open, I see that El and I are standing in a dark abyss, a few small puddles dampening the floor here and there.

“You ok? You aren’t too weak are you?” I ask worriedly, just to make sure the girl I knew as a sister was alright. Opening her eyes, she shook her head, gave me a look that said “shut up” and closed them again.

Something’s surrounding me. I feel it. It’s there. It’s – I blink.

_“My son won’t stop shaking! My boy is too scared to sleep! Tell me why!” Mum rushes in, carrying me in her arms as I uncontrollably shake. We’re in a reception for a hospital I think._

_“William Byers? Bring him over here, Mrs Byers, we’ll take him in for a few check-ups. He might have to stay for a few nights, and you will be unable to visit-” A small man with dark, but greying, hair collects me from my mum’s arms and places me not-so-gently onto a bed – you know, the one’s with the wheels._

_“What? Of course I can see him, he’s my son! I brought him here, to a charitable clinic in the middle of the forest, because the hospital wouldn’t take him. They said it was just some childish nightmares, but I know my son! You have to let me see him!” Mum screeches, scrambling for me, but I am being wheeled away._

_“I’m sorry, Joyce – can I call you that? – but have you ever thought that it might be because of home life? Children in the area? I’m not blaming you, but, until he recovers, he shouldn’t have any connection with his life. In a few days he will have recovered, and, as children’s minds become unfocused and can change easily, he should not revert back to this state. Is that a fair deal? A few days in suitable care, and then you can have your son back, healthy and without a chance of over being like this again.” The man explains, as a nurse with black hair pulled up really badly, pushes me away and through a few doors. The last thing I see of that room, is Mum’s eyes, fearfully looking at me as she nods._

_“Dr Brenner. I brought in the boy we’ve been studying for the past few years. William Byers? Friends with Five, Mike Wheeler?” the nurse says, pushing my bed into another room._

_“Ah, the one we classed as_ Twelve, _remember Miss Marsh?” A cold voice says smoothly, and a middle-aged man comes into my view, his hand resting briefly on my forehead before waving people over. A girl with plaits and a boy with dark hair, both about my age, tremble over to me._

_“Eleven and Thirteen, meet Twelve.” The man begins._

_“Will.” I say._

_“Will? As in William? We have a friend called William, but he likes to be called Bill. Bill and Will, that is good, we can tell the difference.” The boy says, excitedly when addressing me, but always glancing over at the man nervously, much like the girl, who looks terrified._

_“Nine. The boy’s name is Nine. Much like how this “William” is Twelve. Call them by their names, Thirteen. Now, Eleven, enter his mind, and Thirteen, heal his fever.”_

“Eddie.” El whispers as we surface from the memory. Much like El’s repressed memories of Kali and her mum finding her briefly, Hawkins Lab must have stopped my memories of my time there, and of El’s of the four boys we must have known.

The nurse mentioned Mike, so had Mike been like me? Classed as a number, Five, and monitored, but never fully hidden away in a Lab like El. The four boys must have either been taken from the Lab a little while after this memory at most, seeing as they don’t seem to clearly remember this period of time, or were delivered back to their homes.

Thirteen was Eddie, the one used as bait to capture the rest of his friends, and then tied down. Who was journeying here, under a day away. The numbers must have been given on a few factors. Age must have given a general factor, but Eddie looked older than me and El, only just though. Possibly when they were found, that’s why Mike was Five, because he was found the same time as his brother. Maybe value?

Or maybe it was just random – twins were the consecutive numbers, people with a similar age were near each other, but not in a specific order… I don’t know. Why am I stressing over how they gave us our numbers, when I should be worried about the fact _me and my friends were used as LAB RATS AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTS!!!_

“WHAT?” Dustin’s voice ripples over us, directing our attention over to them. We get up and walk over, confused. Then we find out why Dustin was so angry – _Mike is willing to hand himself over._

We are all shocked and hurt, especially El, who loses control for just a moment, sending me into some post-traumatic state for a moment. Eventually, we all agree to plan ‘A.5’, but are interrupted by Steve, Hopper, Jonathon, Nancy and Mum barrelling down the steps.

“Brenner is fifteen miles away. Two vans are heading this way at abnormal speed.” Hopper almost shouts, instantly rushing over to his daughter and taking hold of her.

“Like, so fast cameras weren’t able to catch him – except his own, which we are now in control of.” Steve says, running over to us, expecting shock. We are surprised, but not too surprised, obviously.

“We knew he was coming. He’s definitely coming for E- Jane and Will and Mike-” Max explains.

“Mike?” Nancy gasps, launching herself at her brother and pulling him into a tight hug.

“I have a-a-a twin. We were both l-like El. Numbers. He’s been kidnapped with his friends.” Mike manages out, before he breaks down. Nancy stops in shocks, then starts sobbing. “Richie. His name’s Richie.”

“Well we need to hide you three – all of you in fact. Other than Max, they know all about you lot. I’ll take you to the cabin. _Now!_ ” Hopper grabs El’s arm, and mine, and begins pulling us out. Mum and Jonathan help us up and out, Mum close to crying in anger. Lucas, Dustin and Max follow, being ushered out by mum Steve, and Nancy drags her brother out, who stops. “Come on, Michael!” Hopper yells.

“N-no. I’m going with them. W-we can save R-Richie and Eddie and Bill and Stan better that way.” Mike whispers, shoving his sister off.

“NO!” All the newcomers almost-scream, but Mike just shakes his head and looks pointedly at El. They follow his gaze, and El reluctantly nods, her eyes filled with tears. She buries herself into her father’s chest.

“Mike, please.” Nancy begs, shaking her brother, but feebly, knowing he won’t give in. If _El_ agrees to something endangering her love, everyone has to follow suit, even if she hates the plan, because she knows Mike’s right. If he wasn’t 100% right, she would never allow it.

We rush out of Mike’s house and begin to scramble over pavements and down the street, towards the woods and Hopper’s secret cabin. In the distance the sun reflects on two vans a mile or so away, but we manage to escape through the edge of the forest into the thick trees. Before we fully disappear, I catch eyes with Mike, standing outside his house. He’s looking from the corner of his eyes, so he doesn’t reveal our position. I nod, which he returns. He looks back at the vans shooting towards him, mentally preparing himself, and then he disappears out of sight just behind the branches and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will be explained in the next chapter why they were going so fast. It wasn't a mistake where Dustin had already stated it would take just under a day, and then the journey only seemed to take fifteen minutes, it was deliberate. Comment and kudos xx


	9. Prototype J

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brenner takes Mike...

**Stan’s POV**

My ears hurt, the pressure causing them to tighten and tighten. I massage the worst bit and try to remember what you were went to do to lessen the pressure. I remember and start repeatedly swallowing my spit.

We haven’t moved from our position since we ended our conversation. Richie’s breaths have slowed down and he actually seems to be taking in oxygen rather than just spluttering it back out. Out of nowhere the van stops, sending us toppling over to the furthest wall, smashing against the metal. My forehead is definitely bruised. Doors slam open and shut and I hear an angry voice and a cry.

“WHERE ARE THEY, BOY?” the man I had seen, the one I knew as Brenner, was screaming.

“Gone.” a boy’s voice answers, one that sounds exactly like Richie. _Mike Wheeler, Five._

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE?”

“You weren’t so secret – they escaped, an hour or more ago.” Mike lies, but he sounds angry and his voice sounds different like he is being shaken about.

“Of course…” Brenner says, I hear Mike moan and the sound of a body falling down, Brenner must have shoved him. _Oh shit, nonononononono._

I realise a moment too late what is going to happen next. The door to our van flings open and Richie is hauled out by a man all in black. The man I know to be Brenner reaches in and drags me out by my hair and drags me onto the floor.

“Stan!” I hear my friends cry out, and an unexpected shout of “hey!” from Mike.

“You! You told her! You contacted her before we even got Thirteen I bet.” Brenner screams at me, before backhanding me across my face. He still has a tight hold on my hair, so my body is dangling above the ground, only held up by a few strands of noodle-curls, as my world spins. He lets go and I tumble to the floor in a heap, only to be picked up by my arms by another guy dressed in black. My vision comes into focus and I see all the boys being held in the same position; the others shoot Mike glances, which he returns, and the twins even stare at each other a bit.

“Well, while we have lost Eleven and Twelve, they were not overly necessary. Both have been monitored before. I believe this has been a success. We have managed to successfully manipulate a subjects ability to our own use.” We all look at Brenner confused, and he just laughs and walks over to Bill. He turns the captive’s boy’s head to the side and reveals a circular sticky pad, with a wire curved over it and a light flashing. “How did you think we got here so fast? We used Nine’s ability over speed to make the vans accelerate. Not as fast as Bill and a few people he can take, when he uses his ability, and towards the end of the journey we were certainly slowing down. But Prototype J is definitely successful.

“They can go in the same van now. The other one will go to the old base, to confuse those…”he glances at Mike, “who will try and rescue them. Once they begin their mission, they will be incapacitated and then we will take all the subjects we need. We might even take the new girl and her brother as well, along with your sister and Twelve’s brother, them and Lucas will need to be questioned. Dustin, and even the Sheriff, will be evaluated and then Eleven and Twelve will join you. We might even take Dustin and Lucas and…Maxine? Yes, we will test them and use them as Subject 2.0’s.”

“NO!” Mike screams and writhes as they throw him in the van.

“And don’t think there’s no one else in Derry we can use.” Brenner says as the rest of us our thrown in. As the door swings shut, we hear one last, terrifying comment. “Oh, and I think the little George Denbrough is doing alright. I haven’t checked how he is doing for a few weeks. You might be seeing him soon. Why on earth do you kids call it The Upside Down?”

Bill lets out a half-scream, and Mike’s eyes widen. _The Upside Down..._

A creepy laugh echoes from inside the walls as the van begins to drive away, just like from our nightmares but, this time, it can be proved to be real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very very short. Dramatic, but this was just to explain certain things and to start getting this story rolling. Please comment what you think and kudos. xx


	10. No Difference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El and Lucas' relationship...

**Lucas’ POV**

El’s crying. Will’s crying. Dustin’s close to. I’m close to. Max has gone pale and sweaty, her eyes flitting around, her breathing rushed and ragged. A panic attack. I want to stop, to calm her down, but we need to keep going. Mike didn’t sacrifice himself for us to get captured. Instead I clasp her hand tighter and try to smile reassuringly. I don’t manage to smile, but she acknowledges what I’m trying to do and her breaths slow a tad, and her eyes become more focused. Tripping over Dustin’s leg, I see everyone has stopped, almost encircling El, whose facing the way we came. Her hands reach out, directly in front of me. Something’s telling me I need to move, so I drag Max to the side, earning a small smile from my first girl best friend. So much has changed since I first met, and I was so cautious and – yes I admit it – mean to her. We are pretty close now. We tell each other things, things we wouldn’t tell the others. Like bullying.

Will’s bullying eventually stopped, Troy was gone – don’t think about where – and people grew accustomed to him after the Snow Ball. People forgot the ‘zombie boy’ thing and now we are all pretty much liked. No one else is really friends with us, but everyone accepts us as another group in school. Everyone accepts us, other than me and El.

The other kids find El weird, and are slightly scared of her. They take the mick and the piss of her a lot. Sometimes it’s so subtle she doesn’t pick up on it; sometimes she understands she’s being taken the mick of but not the insult itself; most times she knows and understands what people are saying. She tries to reign in her power, occasionally causing a few flickering lights only we notice, and ‘rolls with the punches’. It hits her hard, but she hides it. It used to be from all of us, until we encountered each other one day,

I was hiding in this little secret place I found a few years ago in school, to try and keep away from a group of kids. They weren’t the worst ones, but the things they were saying and doing weren’t light jokes. It was racism. El ran into my spot, crying. She saw me, stopped in her tracks, started crying more and went to turn away.

I took her wrist and got her to sit down on this little bucket thing.

“El, what happened?” I asked worriedly, taking her hands in mine comfortingly.

“Kids. Kids saying mean things. Mike and Will and Dustin and Max and you weren’t there. I was alone.” She explained tearfully, as best as she could. It took her a little while to get all the words out and phrase them the way she wanted.

“What did they do? Did they do anything to you? Are you hurt?” I asked quickly, searching for bruises or blood that I couldn’t associate with her powers. She didn’t have a speck on her.

“No…physical pain. But inside hurts so much.” She answered, going back to sobbing hard. She took her hands away and used one to wipe her tears and the other to touch her chest.

“Oh El…don’t worry. I’m here.” I said, pulling her into a tight, comforting hug. She sighed into my shoulder and hugged back. “Who was it?” I asked eventually, when she had calmed down.

“A group of girls.” She said, almost normally with a slight hiccup every so often. Pulling away she looked at me worriedly.

“Do you want me to set Max on them?” I questioned, a slight smile pulling at my mouth. El’s eyes glinted mischievously and she nodded, laughing. I laughed as well and I patted her knee. “What are their names?”

“Millie’s group.” Is all she said, but it was enough. _Of course_ , I thought. Max would be glad to fight Millie and her gang of bitches. I helped El stand up and she brushed herself off and we go to head back inside, but she stopped. “Why were you hiding Lucas?” I stopped, sighed and sadly looked at El.

“I was hiding from these kids that hate me. Most weeks I go here at least once. Most kids hate me.” I replied, tears starting to build up. _Shit._

“Why do they hate you?” She asked so innocently, poor El. She’s been through hell and seen some of the worst parts of the world, and I’m about to introduce her to another.

“Do you notice something different about me?” I said sadly, waiting for an answer, I look at my shoes. When I didn’t get one, I look up at El’s confused face.

“No.” She said simply, her head cocked to the side and looking me up and down. The truthfulness and innocence in what she said brought a genuine, appreciative smile to my face, which fell when I tried to get her to see the…obvious.

“What about my skin?” I tried again.

“What about it? It’s not different. No scars or bad patches.”

“What about the colour of my skin?” I finally said, and that causes her to open her mouth in an ‘oh’ when she finally realises what I’m trying to say.

“What’s wrong with that? It is nice.” She said, now really confused. The tears started to fall around that point.

“People hate me for it. People like me have had it worse in history, a few decades ago and a couple of centuries ago were some of the worst points recorded. When you hate against someone with a different skin tone or from a different place, it’s called racism.” I explained, wiping tears from my eyes.

“People like you? But everyone is like everyone. I’m like you.” El said, her brow furrowed, trying to work out what I meant. I just shook my head, smiling wildly at El and I pulled her into a tight hug.

“I love you El.” I whispered into her ear, tears were still coming, but I was laughing and smiling. She understood what I meant and hugged me back.

“I love you too, Lucas.” She whispered back, before we released each other and walked back to class.

Ever since then, we have looked after each other at school. We meet in that spot every so often to talk about everything and nothing. Max beat up Millie’s gang, and every so often, anyone who was mean to me will come into school the next day saying they were pushed by something invisible it seemed, which caused them to break, shatter or fracture bones. Me and El always smile at each other then, and hug each other in thanks when no one is around.

El closes her eyes, and the broken leaves and branches and the very obvious trail we made for the past mile picks itself up and messes up and mingles with each other. She covered our tracks. Once we cross a river nearby, not even dogs will be able to find us. Red blood is seeping from her nose slowly, mixing with her tear tracks. When she stops, she sways and both Hopper and I go to stop her from falling, but she puts her hands out to tell us that she’s fine. We begin to fast walk in a new direction, so not exactly straight North from where we left Mike, but now North West. Hopper and I stay just behind El to be safe, my hand still holding Max’s. Dustin is next to me on my left, with Will on Dustin’s left. Joyce is right behind her son, with Jonathan on her right, one arm around his mother, the other hand holding his girlfriend’s, who is on his left, at the back of the pack. Steve stands protectively next to Max, just behind her so he can be a shield for me and El and Will and Dustin as well.

We are nearly there, a tight nit pack, everyone protecting everyone, united in our fear and anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I quite like El and Lucas being best friends. In my mind, Lucas is El's comforter and basically a therapist and best friend rolled into one; Dustin is El's big brother; Will is so close to her, they are each other's 'soul siblings'; Mike is, of course, her one true love; Max is El's girl bestie, once their relationship bloomed after finding out that Mike still loved her, and Max and Lucas liked each other - Max is basically not quite a sister, but her close close close best friend. Not quite a best friend as Lucas though.   
> Comment and kudos!! xx


	11. Strange Device

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bev discovers something horrendous....

**Bev’s POV**

Last day of school, and I’m covered in all that _stuff_ from the girl’s toilets’ bins. Thanks Greta. Like some kind of _sweet_ routine that was created by that _sweet_ girl, like everyday, I’ve been called ‘slut’ more times than I can possibly count for every insult she doesn’t say. Literally, that is her only insult for me, and ‘loser’ for those boys – Bill, Stan, Richie and Eddie? She could totally write a whole horror book universe with that creative imagination, and scare kids half to death with her original and soul-destroying insults.

I had tried to clean most of the mess off in the cubicle I was in, because they wouldn’t leave for a while. What were they expecting? Me to run out, like they weren’t there, crying and try to wash all the stuff off, while they ambush me again? They are as gormless as they look.

They laughs had faded out, they got pissed and then stormed off. I just rolled my eyes and opened the door, going over to the sink and turning the taps, letting it wash the muck down the plughole, before pushing the plug back in, grabbing my bag and walking off.

I bumped into the sweet ‘new’ kid – Ben. He was a little awkward, but we seem to get each other. He doesn’t seem to have been scared away by the rumours, which there is no doubt he probably heard on his first day, no matter how long ago that was.

And now, I'm at home, just awaiting…nothing, I hope. My dad’s not here right now, which is good. _He’s_ the only thing that…not scares me, or anything…he just freaks me out because you never know with him if he’s going to…

After successfully waiting for around fifteen minutes, I decide that he won’t appear for a while. Sneaking out of my room, I go to a cupboard that is locked. It had _always_ been locked, but around two years ago, my interest it in it spiked, then slipped away. Six months ago, it happened again, and a little part of the interest has always stayed. And now, it’s at its peak, a feral drive that cannot be ignored is pulling me like a magnet towards it.

I untie the bow of string that held the two wooden doors together. Dad only tied it with string because he believed that because of what he…enforced…I would never untie it and venture inside to discover whatever colossal secret it held. He was right until now.

It is one of those cupboard that has two doors, but is just one compartment. It has one piece of wood dividing it into two layers; on the first is a fairly thick file held together by a beige cover and elastic band and on the second is a large pouch, the size of my fist, which looks like it holds a box.

I go for the pouch first, and pull out a wooden box. The lid pulls back on hinges that twist smoothly open, like it has been repeatedly opened for a long time, and reveals what looks to be a walkie-talkie, but with aspects of a telephone. There’s a dotted pattern at the bottom, which I know to be where you speak into, and one at the top, where you listen in. At first, it looks like those are the only bits of the strange, black device, however, after running my finger over the bare, middle section between the two patterns, I discover a subtle button. I lightly press it, and a compartment on the back of the phone pops open. Flipping it over, I discover what looks like a pad to place your thumb, with a red line running up and down.

I close the compartment quickly and place the device back in the box, which I slide into the pouch and place back in the same place in the cupboard. I then take out the file, ping off the elastic band and flip open the cover.

The front piece of paper has a large photo paperclipped to it. Its black and white, and has two rows of people: small, young kids, all around five, but some are definitely a bit older than others, are all in one row, and four adults are behind them, hands placed on the kid’s shoulders, caging them in. With a start I realise I recognise a few of the kids – Eddie is towards the middle, along with the other two small ones and next to an older girl; Bill is next to Stan, and are the last ones of the left; two identical boys are on the opposite side, and while all the kids look scared, I can tell which ones of the twins is Richie. He has large glasses and looks the closest to happy, which isn’t much.

I unclip the photo at the sight of one of the adults. A woman with fly-away black hair…

“Mother?”

I recognise her from a photo I’ve seen once or twice. What has she got to do with the boys, and the others – Richie’s twin, the small boy, the small girl, and the older girl?

I flip the photo over and see a short list of names. At the top of the list, written in black, cursive writing is –

_Mike Hanlon_

_Beverly Marsh_

_Ben Hanscom_

Why am I on it? And Ben? And Mike Hanlon – the farm boy?

Underneath, written in blue ink and handwriting I recognise as my father’s, is two more names, which you can tell were, yes written a while ago, but more recently than the first three.

_Dustin Henderson_

_Lucas Sinclair_

Another name was written, in pencil this time. I can tell this was written only a few months ago.

_Maxine Mayfield_

I am really confused and worried now. I see that there was another, smaller piece of paper paperclipped underneath the photo. I take it out and I see a series of names written in tiny handwriting, in the faintest pencil

_Steve Harrington_

_Jonathan Byers_

_Nancy Wheeler_

_Billy Hargrove_

_Joyce Byers_

_Jim Hopper_

A glance at the paper the photo and note of names were paperclipped to reveals something horrifying to me. Stuffing the two separate pieces of paper back into the file, folding the cover over and grabbing the pouch, I rush to my room and grab the backpack I made for whenever I wished to run away. I barrel out of my house and rush towards…I don’t know where.

But I need to find Mike Hanlon and Ben, and we need to run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'll be able to update more next week, most likely - even though I'll be back in school by then. I don't know how that works, but that is what will probably end up happening.   
> Liking it?  
> Comment your opinions and kudos!! xx


	12. What If

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucas comforts Max....

**Max’s POV**

Lucas keeps giving me reassuring squeezes on my hand, like a heart, beating my blood and keeping me alive – and the symbol of my love. Jane regains her composure and is soon directing us the way to the cabin. Ever since the day she closed the bridge, she’s been getting stronger and more capable of performing feats so incredible they always blow my mind. Two months ago she moved the entire cabin and placed it further and deeper into the woods. We spent days rewiring electrics, fixing the pipes, resetting the traps. Four days later, Jane reshaped the woods, knitting branches together, stretching trees apart. She was almost comatose for a day, but within a week, she was her usual self. Every time we visit the cabin, she rejigs the forest, and, by now, the only side-effect was the dizziness she had already passed.

Jane grew to like me and I became her first friend as Jane. I only knew her from a few mentions as ‘El’ and had met her briefly (though I was later told I had already come head to head with her powers) as El. She became Jane Hopper, firstly known as Jane Ives, and that is what I knew her as. I think she was relieved at the fact one of her friends knew her as Jane, her true name, her real self that wasn’t involved with the Hawkins Labs. But, the girl she was with the boys, would always be El, and she loved that.

I wouldn’t say that because we were the only girls, I am the closest her. I _am_ close, but the boys are closer, which is understandable.

We reach the cabin around fifteen minutes later, after sprinting all the way, bar our few short, cover-up stops, and even though none of us are particularly fit, something was spurring us away. Away from Dr Brenner. Away from home. Away from Billy. Away from Mike.

Dear God, I hope he’s alright. And the four boys taken from Derry. What if something’s gone wrong? What if they find us? What if they kill Mike? What if they torture him into giving Jane and Will up? Mike would never do that, but if Jane even sensed he was being hurt, she would storm over there without a second thought for herself.

Barrelling into the wooden cabin, Hopper slams the door, and Jane seals it tight. Joyce is crying, so Hopper and Will try to comfort her. Jonathon is hugging a silently sobbing Nancy, stopping her from crumpling to the floor. Steve is checking up on us, putting us before him, however you can tell that he is shook and wants to curl up into a ball.

“Max? Are you ok?” Steve asks, after giving Dustin a brotherly hug. I just stare at him for a while, making him come closer. He grabs my chin lightly, getting me to look at him. “Max? Lucas, Max isn’t responding. I think she’s gone into shock. Max? Max! Shit, she’s going to faint!” His arms move from my chin to my wrists, while I feel Lucas' familiar hands grab my waist as my eyes roll back and I collapse.

“Max? Please…please Max…” Lucas’ voice echoes above me, as my eyes swim into focus.

“Max!” Steve cries out, his head and hair covering half my vision, with Lucas’ beautiful face taking up the over half.

“Max!” Lucas repeats, pulling me into a tight hug, his lips finding mine briefly. I finally feel my feelings, and they all overwhelm me at once. I burst into tears, burrowing my head in the crook of Lucas’ neck, encircling my arms around him tightly.

“Mike m-might be hurt. The o-o-oth-ther b-boys boys might be hur-hurt. What if-if-if they – gone wr-wr-wrong? We – th-them – dange-danger.” My thoughts blast out in mismatched, stuttering gasps, making Lucas’ hand go to my shoulder, rubbing it gently.

“We’ll be fine. They’ll be fine. It’s going to be ok. It’s going to be ok.” he mutters into my ear, his voice trying to hide the same thoughts circulating around his own head.

After a few minutes, as my sobs settle and we stay like that, silently breathing calmly, for a few moments, we get up. Steve hugs me, as does Will. Dustin cups my shoulder, a reassuring smile sweetly on his face. After glancing at Lucas, he pulls me into a warm hug as well.

He’s gotten over his crush on me, and we all know that. Dustin just worries that if he hugs me, Lucas might assume he still likes me and will try to get in between us. Lucas knows that Dustin would never do that, but nothing he says makes Dustin’s anxiety lessen.

I hug Jane, but all of a sudden she tightens and begins breathing deeply. I jump away, staring worriedly. Her eyes are slightly unfocused, and she’s clutching Hopper’s hand. _She isn’t here. She is there. Stan must have contacted her again._

She’s still there, but her tears are the only sign that this is a reality. A reality happening to our friend, his brother and three other innocent boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a short chapter. She's the last of the Party to get their first POV, but because there is one more Loser Club member, I might give a chapter to Steve or Hopper. I won't stick to the order I've used for the past chapters, but I'll use the same characters. Maybe for the extra Stranger Things POV, I could have different characters each time? Go between Steve, Hopper, Nancy, Jonathon, Joyce - maybe even Billy? I'll work it out.  
> What do you guys think?  
> Comment and kudos xx


	13. Coded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bev goes to Ben and Mike...

**Ben’s POV**

I don’t know how Bev knew where I lived, or rather _lived_ , but that’s just like her. Not creepy or stalkerish or anything…just nice, sweet and caring. She just barrelled down my driveway and repeatedly slammed on my front door.

“BEN! BEN! BEN!” She had screamed, alerting my poor mother, who answered the door in a fluster.

“Dear? Are you one of Ben’s friends? Are you Bev? What’s the rush dearie, Ben won’t leave anytime soon.” My mother had said as Bev raced up our stairs and saw me standing at my bedroom door. _Sorry Mum, you were slightly in the wrong there_.

Pushing me back into my room, Bev had swung the door closed and I had then noticed her tears.

“Bev? What’s wrong?” I had asked, worried for her and amazed that my cr- that a gir- that she had raced to my house to see me.

“Experiments…Richie…Eddie…Bill…Stan…me…you…Mike…Hawkins…numbers… _others_ …” she was just wheezing random words that didn’t fit into a sentence, but did form what she was trying to tell me. “Pack your…your stuff…find Mike…run…need to run…to Hawkins…find them…”

Is it bad that I trusted this girl entirely and believed everything she told me?

I grabbed my school backpack and empty it. Then I stuffed in clothes, underwear, toothbrush, my notebook and pen, three walkie talkies and my book of the History of Derry, complete with photos and snippets I had collected and written out.

_Hawkins?_

I had suddenly realised something crucial. I had had book hidden away under my bed about Hawkins. When we first moved, it was jammed under a loose floorboard that was half-out like someone had put it in a hurry or had wanted me to find it. Now, I know it was a mix of both and that they didn’t just want the person whose room it was next to find it, they had wanted _Ben Hanscom_ to find it.

“What’s that?” Bev had asked, I briefly showed her before forcing it into my backpack, which I pulled onto my shoulders.

“A book I found when I first moved in here. A book about Hawkins. I only read the first chapter or so, and briefly looked over the index…but I think I remember Derry being mentioned as a town that had always had links and relationships with it…and something about experiments.” I had stopped in the middle of the room, twisted towards the window, but facing my door. “We have to escape through the window and find Mike. I can’t say goodbye to Mum. This room is probably bugged, so we need to go now.”

With one final, sorrowful look, one that told my Mum my goodbye and apology, I had then darted to the window, and pulled myself through onto the fire escape. I had offered my hand to Bev, who thankfully took it, and we raced down the black stairs and towards the Hanlon farm. We had instantly ran the back way, not wanting to run into Bowers.

Even though I am fat, I am surprisingly good at running. _Maybe when this is all over, I can take it up and burn all my fat off_ , I hope, _something tells me I’ll be doing a lot of running for a little while_.

That brings us to where we are now, standing in Mike’s living room, imploring him to leave with us. His grandfather is in the farm, so he was alone in the house before we came.

“Why should I trust you? What do you mean run away?” He questions, I look at Bev to explain, for I know less than her and I kind of just….went with it. She rips open her bag and pulls out a file, slamming it open onto the table. We crowd round it and read it for a minute or two. She only shows us the pictures, the names and the file stating that they were coming for us and something really weird.

_“After twenty-seven years, it will rise and claim Derry. Because of the subjects tether to it, we need to take them before it can get it’s clutches on them beforehand. Whether or not we choose to take the three extras along with Four, Nine, Ten and Thirteen is yet unclear, we will decide in the coming years as the anniversary draws closer. It will be attracted away from Derry and towards Hawkins, where we can successfully ensnare it and further our tests. The subjects will occasionally come into contact with it for monitoring and scientific purposes only.”_

It is dated about seven years ago, and what it says chills me to the bone.

“I haven’t read the rest, and Ben’s book will probably help us out, but we need to go, Mike. Even if we weren’t meant to be captured by these…scientists….whatever _it_ is will come after us as well.” Bev explains, carefully sliding it back into her bag.

“My grandfather always said there was something wrong with this town. He always wanted me to escape. I guess now is time. Can I tell him that I am running away for my safety?” Mike asks.

“I don’t know. What if they find the message? What if this place is bugged?” I reply, looking around as if I’m going to see a massive bug stuck to the wall amongst the photos.

_Wait did I just see? Did I see? What was it? Latex red, chalky white, crazy orange – all the colours in a weird mix…_

“Ben! Are you ok? You zoned off.” Bev shakes me and I nod, turning to Mike.

“My grandfather gets really paranoid about bugs, checks the house every week. We only checked this morning, we’re safe. And the message will be…in a way…coded. In a way only we understand.” Mike explains and he walks away, outside. We are only waiting for a moment, before he is back, clutching a backpack. “I always have spare and precious stuff stored outside…in case something happens…here.” He goes quiet and then walks out. He turns. “Coming?”

Bev and I glance at each other, then we follow him.

Off to Hawkins we go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I HAVEN'T WRITTEN IN SO LONG. I'M SO SORRY. I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP, I WAS JUST BUSY. I'VE HAD LOADS OF IDEAS AND THIS IS THE FIRST CHANCE I HAVE HAD TO WRITE THEM DOWN.  
> Anyway, comment and kudos xx


	14. The Cliff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve explains his thoughts...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight trigger warning for depression and suicide. Nothing really, just hinted at and vaguely referenced.

**Steve’s POV**

Max backs away from Jane, whose nose bleeds freely, mingling with the quiet, noticeable tears. She must be doing that contacting thing with Stan.

I never knew about Jane until she burst into the cabin we are in now, six months ago, a powerful bitchin’ ball of sweetness who collapsed into Mike’s arms. Their love is so sweet and pure, nothing like mine and Nancy’s at the beginning…but also unlike her and Jonathan’s new, vibrant relationship. I miss Nancy, but I’ve gotten over her. I just think that there is a chance her and Jonathan’s love affair could end in flames. I can see Mike and Jane getting married, but not Nancy and Jonathan.

Anyway, back to Jane. I officially met her a day before the Snow Ball, Hopper instructed me to help him patrol the area of the dance to keep her, and everyone else, safe seeing as I wasn’t going myself. I was introduced to her and I soon adopted her into my little pack of children, though I would never say that in hearing range of Hopper, seeing as he’s only just become her dad. I’ll be her surrogate of the adoptive father.

We hit it off and now I’m just Mom Steve to the whole “Party” as they call themselves. I help them with their homework, their school life and anything and everything. I do spend some time with Nancy and Jonathan, but that is awkward. Hell, I even meet up with Billy occasionally, but we usually end up fighting. It’s a little sad that I’ve ended up with no friends my age, especially after falling from popularity over the course of two years, but I wouldn’t change my children for anything, definitely not for my old gang of friends. Then again, now I’ve left school, I have met several people I would class as friends…I guess.

The past six months have been hard, and there are times I’ve wanted to give up, to just _stop_. The looks, the not fitting in, all the things I can just about handle but is weighing me down until I collapse.

Regularly, I go up to the cliff we all thought Will Byers died on. Not to do anything, but to look. To think. I stare out over, into the water, and think about Will and how he survived the impossible, how he is still going after horrors I’ve only had a lick of. Of Jane, locked up and medically tortured, now no different from any other teenage girl in love, minus the powers. They’ve both been granted a new, happier lease of life, one they deserve. One under threat and already crumbling. One I will protect.

I keep going for them, and Dustin, and Max and Lucas and Mike, to give them the life they deserve, they need, that they are going to have. They need and will have it. I will make sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VERY SHORT. I'm sorry. I love Steve and I can't wait to give him a better chapter, but I can't have anything hinting at the drama coming. Also I apologise for the Steve whump. Can I just say, I don't like writing the Loser's POV as much as I do the Party's, but Ben's was really enjoyable for me to write and one of my favourite chapters of the story.  
> What's your favourite chapter been?  
> Comment and kudos. xx


	15. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bev, Ben and Mike find the other boy's bikes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for panic attacks and reference to what happened to Mike's family.

**Mike H’s POV**

I and the other two runaways have been travelling for about half an hour when we enter the forest and see four bikes along the beginning of the thickly dense area of trees. We all instantly recognise them as the ones which belong to the four missing boys.

“We should use these, we will get there faster and will bring less attention to the fact kids are missing. Most won’t notice, especially their parents, but this will alert some uncertainty with what happened with Georgie Denbrough and Betty Ripsom.” I say and pick up one, which I think is Stan’s. Bev takes Richie’s and Ben takes Bill’s. A little further up the way is Eddie’s, mangled and blood-spotted. It is too small for us and too noticeable if we cycle with a bike that has obviously witnessed something horrible. But leaving that bike would be worse than leaving the three other boy’s bikes. Kicking up Stan's bike’s stand, I creep over to the bike, looking around to make sure I couldn’t see anyone and drag it towards the other two, being careful not to damage it any more.

“We need to hide Eddie’s bike in some dense part of the forest, until we come back to it.” I say, pushing it into the forest and looking around.

“But somewhere clean and safe, otherwise Eddie will have a fit.” Bev says, taking the bike off me and steering it towards a collection of trees. We follow her round the clump of trees and almost fall over in shock. One of the trees has some kind of _hole_ filled with gunk and vines and something and I don’t know and horror and-

Bev screams, pointing at something behind us. We whip round and see blood morphing into a headless figure morphing into…

Into…

Into… _my parents, burnt from the fire…reaching out._

_Howling, calling for me to help._

_Help._

_Help._

HELP!

The blood-stained bike slips into the decayed part of the tree, followed by the horror dark mass barrels through us. We end up sprawling along the ground in different directions, but we instantly scramble up and tumble over to where we left the bikes.

“What was that?” Bev hyperventilates, while Ben is sobbing, clutching at his head and shaking it. I am frozen and I can feel my hands shake and tears drip down my cheeks; it is like an out-of-body experience, my consciousness is frozen in fear, while the rest of my body is starting to have a seizure. A panic attack.

I can’t breathe….please someone save me….I’m going to die….like I should have….please….what was…my parents…I can’t breathe…what on earth…the others…. _the others_ …Eddie’s bike…the tree…the mass…. _breathe_... _breathe_ ….

All of a sudden I can and oxygen inflates my lungs. Bev is still rambling on, trying to work out the impossible, and Ben is still wiping tears away from his eyes. I give us a minute to calm.

“We need to go _now_. That, the kidnappers, Bowers, the town. Everyone and everything possible and impossible are after us…and they’ve got the others. We need to leave!” I cry and swing Stan’s stand up and push off. I see the others follow suit and soon we are speeding out of Derry, standing up on our bikes and pushing as fast and hard as we can.

Freedom mingles with fear. _We are leaving Derry._ The one thing most people want. Under any other situation I would be crying and screaming with joy. With this situation, I’m crying and screaming with fear.

My mind spins as I zoom past the ‘you are leaving Derry’ sign and remind myself that at the next stop to buy a map.

Something is wrong though….something about that _thing_. Why do I feel like that thing, the hole in the tree and what happened to the boys are all linked? And that we really haven’t left the danger behind, and have instead, led it out of Derry and towards one final confrontation…when everything collides - and not in our favour?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very dramatic and very short. Sorry. The next chapter will be MUCH longer. Thank you - comment and kudos!!! xx


	16. Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El manages talk with the kidnapped boys...

**El/Jane’s POV**

I propel my energy to shut the door and barricade it tight. Once I feel that happen, I feel all my power shrink back and fatigue replace it. I clutch Hopper’s hand, using him as my anchor as my first one is in danger because of me.

_Mike…_

What power does he possess I wonder? I feel like I know, so I reach into the darkness, trying to uncover something I’ve forgotten. Something is there, just out of reach. I stretch towards and the blackness slips away and across me like an ocean, revealing Stan.

“El?” His voice echoes around me, enveloping me in where he is. Faces and bodies slip and smur into existence: Eddie, his face pale; Bill, his body more faded and something instantly sticking out to me as a bright sticker on his neck; Richie, his glasses instantly alerting me to he is; Mike, his eyes staring at Stan, as if he heard what he said, and then to me, his hand reaching out towards me hesitantly.

“Mike?” I say and he breaks into a smile. I rush over to him and hug him. It is weird, it doesn’t feel like a really hug, he’s not really there, but something _is_. It is like he is a mass of pressure (science Hopper taught me) with no actual texture.

“Eleven…is everyone ok? Did everyone get out?” Mike asks urgently, his eyes find mine and their beautiful stare is even more highlighted and real than in real life.

“Yes. I covered our tracks. We are in the cabin. Max fainted but she’s ok.” I inform him, a rush of worry and sympathy fills my body at the thought of the girl I now have come to terms with, who ended up fainting.

“Shit. But I’m glad everyone got out. Look, Brenner is mad and will go after you guys, even Billy. We are all in one van, but he sent another to the old base. We aren’t going to were you used to be. I reckon we will be going at a midpoint between here and Derry. Probably the base they used when we were babies.” Mike whispers, looking behind him at the sheet of grey I can assume is the wall separating the boys from the drivers. “Also, something really horrific happened in Derry. Bill’s brother and some other kids have been kidnapped and taken _into the Upside Down_. We’ve all felt something evil looking at us from behind, and hear maniacal laughter, I think another monster, a much more human-like monster, has escaped and is either being controlled or working with Hawkins Labs.”

“It’s connected to us. It’s not watching now…but I can feel it here, in this space. Can’t you? It is full of…” Stan says, causing all the rest to look around.

“Fear.” I finish, for I can already understand what Stan meant. Like how the darkness of this space surrounds us, something has polluted it slightly, and the traces of fear is slipping across my skin as if I am swimming in it. The feeling of maniacal laughter causes the hair on my arms and neck to stand up more than I ever knew they could before. The sound isn’t there, but it is almost as if it is, with the creeping sensation and vibrations gripping every part of me other than my ear canals.

“Come on! Careful of the car!” A voice cries from behind us. The boys peer round and spin to face three familiar figures zooming past on bikes. The voice came from the boy who looks the oldest, with short dark hair and he is speaking to the other boy, a chubbier one, who is peering at a map balanced on his lap as he sped along. A girl slips between them, looking softly and worriedly at the chubby boy, and thankfully at the other boy.

“Sorry, Mike…I was just trying to see which road we need to take next. Contrary to what you might believe, it’s not a straight road from here to Hawkins, Indiana.” The boy snaps back, keeping one hand on the handlebar he stuffs the map in the gap between and his back and the rucksack. Then he pedals faster, so they come into a squashed, triangle, clump formation.

“Mike?” Eddie and Stan say together, with my Mike saying it afterwards and in confusion.

“Ben?” Bill says.

“Bev?” Richie finishes.

All three cyclists look over in our general direction, but they can’t see us, only feel the sensation of us.

“Di-did you guys…?” Bev trails off, looking around.

“Like words but not words…” other Mike replies, shaking his head as if he is trying to rid himself off the feeling. After a pause, him and Bev look away, but Ben still looks around and finally he looks at exactly where we are. He can’t see us, but he knows we are there.

“Bill? Eddie?” He whispers, before looking away and cycling off, all three suddenly disappearing.

“Hey what about me, I’m fuc*ing offended!” Richie breaks the tension, calling out into the darkness, causing us to all whirl round to face him.

“He said Bill because he’s the leader of us and he is riding his bike. He said Eddie because Eddie must be injured. They found our bikes, so they must have seen his, with it being bloodied and wrecked. He could sense us as well, but he thought it was fake.” Stan sighs, shaking his head at Richie, who gives a ‘hmph’ sound in reply.

“So they are going to Hawkins…El, you need to make sure that you guys meet up with them, and that you keep them safe.” Mike says urgently, looking at me. I nod and go to kiss him, only to, of course, realise I can’t.

“Oooh, has Mikey-boy got a girlfriend. If you are identical to me, I can tell she’s happy with what she sees when you-” Richie taunts, but he is interrupted when Mike charges at him and tackles him.

“MIKE!” I scream in fear.

“RICHIE!” All three of the others yell in annoyance, Stan and Bill ripping Richie away from Mike, who is being held back by Eddie. Suddenly, everyone topples over and I feel a sense of vertigo. All five go pale and stop, all turning to look to my left.

“We’ve stopped…” Eddie whispers.

“E-El…you need to go. You need to go now! Go, El – GO! NOW!” Mike yells frantically as I hear the door slide open and all four boys scramble back.

“El? What do you mean, El?” A man’s voice I dread cuts through the darkness. His figure appears sharply to me, but I can tell he can’t see me. Stan has gone even paler, so I know he is helping me view him while I try to escape.

 _Papa_.

He advances towards Mike, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him forwards slightly.

“Is Eleven here? Is she viewing this? What has she seen? What have you seen? What does she know? Where is she? WHERE DID THEY GO?” He roars, shaking Mike with each question. He goes to shake Mike again, when something clicks in his brain. Dropping Mike onto the floor, he stands up slowly. Richie and Eddie instantly go to Mike’s side, checking him. Bill goes to move, but everyone freezes when Papa turns slowly to face a pale and sweaty looking Stan with a single, menacingly quiet, almost inaudible, word. “ _You_...”

Suddenly he launches himself at the boy, grabbing him by his neck and hauling him up until they are nose to nose. Stan begins to choke and squirm and the other boys are crying out. Papa then proceeds to slam Stan into what I guess is the metal wall of the vehicle. Using his free hand he punches the boy all across his body.

“YOU.” _Slam_. “CONTACTED.” _Slam_. “HER.” _Slam_. “HOW.” _Slam_. “DARE.” _Slam_. “YOU.” _Slam. Slam. Slam._

“GET OFF HIM!”

“LET GO OF HIM!”

“STAN!”

“YOU FUC*ING SICK FUC*ER!”

The boys shouts mingle with my cries and Stan’s weak gasps and splutters for air. Richie jumps up and grabs Papa’s arm that he was punching Stan with, but Papa swings it back, throwing Richie back over to the huddle of boys. Papa then whips something out of his pocket, still screaming and slamming Stan against the wall. I can see he has a contraption of some sort with several buttons. Pressing the first one, while still slamming Stan on the wall, it lets out a small beep and suddenly Bill starts fitting on the floor, screaming. The buzz of electricity is obvious as Bill’s limbs seize and spasm and the sticker on his neck is the cause. Eddie grabs him and tries to stop his limbs from flailing. Richie goes to help, but Mike holds him back.

“Don’t touch him! Electricity is flowing through him. You touch him and you’ll get electrocuted.” Mike warns, wrapping his arms around his struggling brother.

“But Eddie!” Richie cries, worried for all his friends and close to tears.

“Has a healing power. He is feeling the electricity but not as strongly as Nine is, barely at all actually.” Papa interrupts, letting go of Stan’s neck and allowing him to slump limply to the floor, sucking in large gulps of air. Papa goes inside his pocket and fishes something out. He goes back to Stan’s neck and Mike cries out, but all Papa does is stick one of those stickers that Bill has, which is _electrocuting_ him, on Stan’s neck. Instantly Stan becomes as faint and washed out to me as Bill does.

Turning to the other boys, he presses the same button again and Bill’s body stills, leaving him to heave sobs that wrack his body as much as the shocks did.

“Do not ever use your powers without permission.” He orders, looking pointedly at the three boys without the stickers. He then looks at all the shaking and sobbing bodies around him, his eyes finally meeting my tear-filled ones.

_He can’t see me._

_He can’t see me._

Can he?

“Let this be a lesson to all of you.” He says, the words striking into my heart as he stares at me. I crumple to the floor, sobbing with my eyes squeezed shut. I feel the darkness leave me, the presences change to other people. I am home. But those tortured boys aren’t. And they aren’t safe. None of us are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD I AM TERRIBLE AT THIS. I swear to you I will start updating more frequently! From next week, I'll be on my six week summer holidays so I will 100% be updating more often, I swear on my life! Thank you so much for reading this trash - I love you all so much. Comment and kudos xx


	17. Thank Yous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four captured boys talk...

**Eddie’s POV**

“Oh my god – oh God…God…Bill, Stan! Are you two ok? Oh, God. Fucking hell. Shit.” I ramble, my anxiety reaching one of its peak points.

I can’t believe that guy, that _evil bastard_. He just tortured Bill and beat up Stan. What the FUCK?

The van is moving again, and is twisting rounds bends with some kind of frenzied precision. My hands are still on Bill, and I can already feel him starting to move. Because of my powers, I healed him from the electrocution, but he still has the memory of his blood vessels boiling and becoming lava racing around his body.

“T-t-th-thank y-y-you E-E-Ed-d-ie.” He manages to force out, but his stutter is even worse than usual, of course. I pull my arms under his and encircle them around his chest, pulling him up into a sitting position against the wall of the van. Next, I turn to Stan, whose trying to force himself up, but his limbs keep buckling under him and are wobbly. Giving Bill on final squeeze on his shoulder, I carefully crawl over to Stan and place my hand on his cheek.

I don’t know how my power works, recently the only time I’ve ever knowingly used it was just then with Bill, and that was an instant-reaction-spur-of-the-moment-thing. I close my eyes and mentally reach out for the deep feeling I have inside, the dark depths of my mind. I picture Stan’s cuts knitting back together, his bruises reversing to back before Brenner had attacked him. Flickering open my eyes, Stan’s bruises and cuts are gone and he seems more awake, but still a little shaky.

“Thank you Eddie.” Stan whispers, catching my eyes and nodding a little, before looking briefly at Bill, then the others and finally resting his eyes at the floor, one hand massaging his forehead, the other wrapped around his knees.

“No problem Stan,” I murmur back, before turning to the other two, the twins, “are you two ok? Mike – right? He hurt you a bit.”

“Yeah, but I’m fine now, thanks. Oh, and Eddie? Nose.” He smiles and taps his nose. I furrow my brow and gently touch my nose, to find a thick trail of blood seeping out one nostril. Had I been injured? Why wasn’t t it healing? After I rub it away it stops and I look worriedly at Mike. “Don’t worry. It’s a natural reaction to any of the MKUltra experiments, I think. After you begin to harness your power better, you’ll be able to do bigger and better things and your nose will bleed less. El, the girl…my girlfriend, gets them. And apparently so does her “sister” Kali.”

“Sister?” Richie asks, looking at his own brother. “Does everyone have a relative in this stuff? Is that why we are in this shit?”

“No. I think. El refers to Kali as her sister because of their connection. They remember each other a bit. When we found out about you she called you guys ‘brothers’. It just refers to your shared bond. I don’t know if there is any other siblings…None of you I would guess seem related to each other, or me – other than Richie, obviously.” Mike explains.

“Yeah, but ain’t that a bit weird? You are obviously a “MKUltra” experiment, or at the very least I am. So if you and I are brothers, and I’m El’s ‘brother’, or you both are in the ‘sibling connection’ thing – you are basically fucking you sister. OUR sister! Hey.” Richie taunts, which earns Mike to shove him warningly.

“B-beep B-beep R-Richie.” Bill splutters, already gaining hold of his consciousness and taking control of himself, and letting his pain subside. _That’s thanks to you_.

“Beep beep?” Mike questions, laughing.

“We say it when we want him to shut up,” I smile at Richie, who winks back, “Trashmouth usually doesn’t shut up, but if he goes too far we give him that phrase to shut up.”

“Ah, I’ll keep that and – Trashmouth? – in mind.” Mike chuckles, giving Richie a little punch on the shoulder.

“Hey – Trashmouth is my nickname! We’ve all got them. Big Bill, Stan the Man, Eddie Spaghetti, or Eds or Spaghetti He-” Richie points excitedly, grinning at all of us.

“How many times? That’s not my name!” I laugh, going up to him and pushing his hand down to his side, before sitting down next to him. “What about you, Mike? Any nicknames?”

“Well, Mike is a nickname from Michael, but nothing really. Except,” Mike pauses and his face flashes with sadness, which causes Richie to instantly budge up into him more, “this boy…this bully. Troy. He would call me Frogface. He called all of us names, but no one seemed to care. Mine was probably the nicest. The others were racist or homophobic, or made fun of Dustin’s cleidocranial dysplasia. Mine were just about the way I look.”

“Where the fuck is he! I’m going to beat his fucking ass.” Richie seethes and we all shoot him disbelieving looks, “fine. I won’t beat him up, I’ll just use my power on him! He should’ve never messed with my younger brother!”

“First, who says I’m the younger twin, if anything I should be the oldest because I stayed with our family. Second, El already used her power on him – she made him piss himself in assembly and later broke his arm when he forced me to jump off a cliff. He disappeared, today I realised he was probably taken by Brenner because he saw El and reported her.” Mike says.

“ _First_ ,” Richie says jokingly, “who says we are your family? We could be Tozier’s. But then again I look nothing like Wentworth or Maggie and I am pretty sure I once found torn up adoption papers. Second, way to go El – BUT HE TRIED TO GET YOU TO JUMP OFF A CLIFF?”

“No, he _made_ me jump off a cliff. I did. He wanted me to kill myself.” Mike says, taken aback by Richie’s fury.

“WHAT! HE MADE YOU – YOU _JUMPED OFF A CLIFF!”_

“We jump off the cliff at the Barrens all the time, Richie,” Stan says quietly.

“BUT THIS WAS SO MIKE WOULD _KILL HIMSELF. WHY, BROTHER, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?”_

“He had my friend at knifepoint. It was the only way to save Dustin. I would have died if El hadn’t used her powers to grab me and lift me to safety when I was halfway down the cliff. He was a psycho.” Mike nervously explains, now seeming ashamed of the story.

“S-so you have a bully t-trying to make you kill your-s-self, while we have a bully trying to k-kill us. Now we’ve b-been captured by another lot of psy-psychos and there is something else about. We can’t catch a b-break. Not even f-for summer.” Bill shakes his head, now fully recovered and trying to peel the white sticker off, which he succeeds in. Glancing down at it, he mutters, “so much for Prototype J.”

There is a silence, other than the sound of Stan peeling the sticker off his neck, and we all look at each other, thinking about the unspoken _entity_ we had all felt.

“Bill?” Mike finally breaks the silence. “How long has Georgie been missing?”

“A few months – do you think he’s still alive, in the Upside Down?” Bill asks imploringly, looking desperately into Mike’s eyes.

“Umm, well. I thought that El had been trapped in there for a year, but she had only been in there for a few hours. Will survived a week, but only just…”Mike says, but when Bill’s eyes begin to fill with tears, he tries to save what he said. “But Brenner said he hasn’t checked on him in a few weeks, which means he must have survived a couple of months just fine, so he’s most likely still alive. We’re going to find him and bring him back, Bill. Ok? And whatever this new monster is…we’ll defeat It. Just as El and the others defeated the Demogorgan and the Mind Flayer. Ok? But we are going to do it together. Us four, El – Dustin, Lucas, Max and Will and all the others back in Hawkins, and Beverly, Ben and the other Mike as well. We are going to defeat It and Hawkins Lab once and for all.”

Bill gave a small smile and nod of thanks and we all gave a joint nod of the head in agreement. We weren’t going to lose or give up, we were going to win. We all slipped into silence, and eventually everyone somehow managed to fall asleep: Stan first, then Mike, then Bill and finally Richie and me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH - I hate myself. I've had so many ideas but been to busy to write them down. Then I kind of became, not disinterested in the fandoms, but more interested in others? Does that make sense? But I recently got back into them and found some inspiration to write. So so so sorry to anyone who is actually interested in this garbage, I'll try and write more and better quality. Thank you so much, and anyone still with me - I love you all.  
> Comment and kudos????? xx

**Author's Note:**

> There you go - like it? Please comment any opinions (try and keep them nice please...I'm only human and most likely a Crank - wrong fandom! - so please be kind)


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